


Ready or Not

by broedym



Series: Welcome to Resistance [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Small Town, DameRey, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Modern AU, doctor rey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-11-04 15:08:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17900447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/broedym/pseuds/broedym
Summary: Poe has a surprise for Rey, and she really isn’t sure if she’s ready for it.A little one-shot follow up to The Path of Least Resistance.





	Ready or Not

Rey let out a sigh of relief when she flopped onto the bench in the hospital’s locker room. Her shift was done, the last in a three week rotation of gynecology inpatient procedures. Tired and hungry, she was looking forward to retreating to the on-call room during her short turnaround before rounds started the next morning. She was trying to summon the energy to get changed out of her scrubs when Poe walked in.

“What are you doing here?” she asked in surprise.

“Hello to you too.” He seemed amused at her grumpiness which, as usual, only increased it.

“Why are you at the hospital?”

“I was meeting with my study group this afternoon, remember?”

“Oh, right.” She did vaguely recall him saying something about it the previous night as they were getting ready for bed.

Poe straddled the bench to sit down next to her, and leaned in. “Hello, beautiful.”

“Hi.”

She gave him a quick kiss, only because there was no one else around. Poe didn’t care who knew they were together, and he knew everyone at the hospital thanks to the clinical rotations in his physician assistant program. But Rey still wasn’t wholly comfortable with public displays of affection, especially when she wasn’t in a great mood.

“It’s the end of your shift so I’ve come to steal you away,” he announced.

Rey groaned inwardly. “I thought I told you, I’m going to stay in the on-call room because my new rotation starts tomorrow. I have a pile of reading to get done.”

Pediatric care would not be her favorite block, she knew, but she’d be damned if she wasn’t going to prepare as best she could. And commuting to Resistance and back again in the early morning would just be a hindrance to that.

Poe shook his head. “You’re not staying at the hospital tonight, I have other plans for you. Come on.”

He waggled his eyebrows at her then stood up and took her by the hand, pulling her heavy backpack onto his shoulder and leading her out of the locker room without further explanation.

Rey wanted to object. She wanted to tell him that, as noisy and uncomfortable as the on-call room could be, she had been looking forward to the night away from Resistance all week. Between the long shifts and the commute, and residing in a household with three other people and a dog constantly in her space, staying overnight at the hospital would be a reprieve. It was a chance for her to recharge and focus on her work without worrying about being patient with Bea or affectionate with Poe. She could relax and just be a doctor.

It wasn’t that she didn’t love them, she definitely did. In the past year she’d surprised herself just how much she had come to care about all of her friends in Resistance. But Rey couldn’t deny that her domestic situation was sometimes stifling, and the small town where everyone knew each other’s business could be intrusive. She’d worked hard to adjust and adapt to her environment, even committing to regular therapy sessions, but she didn’t always get it right. There were times that she still wanted to be alone, which was difficult when she went from home to the hospital and a busy residency, to the clinic where she still worked when she could. Rinse and repeat, week after week.

It was hard to feel resentful because deep down she really wasn’t. She had come to the residency program at St. Clara’s late and, as she discovered, the only reason she had a place was because the town of Resistance was funding it. So she’d spent that first year giving back by seeing patients in the clinic in her limited spare time. In truth she didn’t quite know how she was juggling all of it – work, a relationship, and maintaining her sobriety – except she had a support structure for the first time. She had people who cared about her and on whom she could rely, after a lifetime of the opposite.

Poe was first and foremost her support, which is why she felt bad about wishing he hadn’t just surprised her at the hospital. But Rey was suspicious when he said she needn’t change out of her scrubs. She wasn’t sure what kind of surprise included staying in her work clothes.

They left her car in the lot and he drove a short distance to a hotel. It wasn’t the usual Motel 6 where they’d stayed several times previously, when they had shared a night away from Resistance without having to worry about being in a house with a nine-year-old light sleeper who also happened to be an early riser. Those nights, and a few afternoons, had just been for the two of them.

This was a decidedly better hotel – the kind couples stayed at for a romantic getaway, which was definitely not something Rey felt like doing in her present state.

“Poe, I have been looking at vaginas all week, the last thing I want to think about right now is my own,” she whined.

He just grinned at her as he pulled into the car park. He collected an extra bag from the backseat and, bypassing the reception desk, took her straight to the elevator where he swiped to go up.

“What is this?” she asked, burning with curiosity in not an entirely good way. A feeling of unease was gnawing at her, and it didn’t help that Poe simply smiled and reiterated that it was a surprise.

He let them into one of the rooms that was even nicer than she expected. It had a king-sized bed, a dining space and comfy looking sofa, along with a desk and large flat screen TV. Poe shrugged off her backpack and put his own bag on the bed while Rey stood uncertainly in the middle of the room. Her unease was quickly turning into dread, and it increased to nausea when it dawned on her what was going on.

He’s going to propose, she thought. He’s actually going to do it.

Even in her distracted state from work Rey had noticed he’d been cagier in recent days. She’d put it down to his studies but she realized now there was another cause. Her eyes flicked to the door and she had the overwhelming desire to run. She just wanted to go back to the hospital and curl up with her medical journals and a makeshift dinner of Pringles and chocolate. She didn’t want to face whatever he had planned.

It wasn’t unexpected, Rey knew it was coming. It was how things were supposed to go – meet a guy, fall in love, get married. Never mind that things between them hadn’t been so simple and straightforward. Forget that neither of them had a particularly good track record when it came to relationships. Everyone in town assumed there would be a wedding in their future, they’d been commenting about it since Rey returned to Resistance after her brief stay in LA.

She had ignored the friendly cajoling and the more intrusive lines of questioning when it came to her personal life. The past year, despite its challenges, had been the happiest of her whole life. The Damerons had welcomed her into their family and enveloped her with affection. Poe was the kindest and most honest man she had ever been with. She knew he wanted to take the next step. He wanted that stability for Bea as well as himself, and for reasons Rey still couldn’t quite fathom, he wanted _her._

She just wasn’t sure she was ready for all of it – marriage, being a stepmom, maybe even having a baby of her own. They hadn’t even discussed it, not really, not the important details about truly sharing a life together that she felt they should address. Like how they could live and work together full time without killing each other, when she finished her residency and took over at the clinic full time, and he was a qualified physician assistant. She would be his boss. Like how he casually hinted at having more children and Bea outright assumed she would have siblings eventually, but Rey didn’t know if she wanted that. Turning out like her parents was her greatest fear, and bringing a child into the world would force her to face it.

So while she knew Poe would propose one day, and perhaps she even hoped he would, as she stood in the hotel room Rey knew she wasn’t ready. It wasn’t just that she was tired coming off a 12-hour shift. It _had_ only been a year. It was too soon.

She gulped when he clandestinely transferred something from his bag to his pocket so she couldn’t see what it was. What she did see was the bulge in his jeans that it created. She desperately tried to think of a distraction, anything to delay the inevitable. She was a doctor, she knew exactly how to fake acute appendicitis and make it believable. She already had the flop sweat part down anyway, as her nervousness increased with every passing second.

“It’s time for your surprise,” Poe said smoothly, and Rey knew it was too late. “Close your eyes.”

She frowned, wondering if the hammering in her chest was panic or the beginning of a heart attack. Her breath quickened and she really did feel like she was going to throw up. Her eyes fluttered closed. She heard him draw nearer, and felt his presence when he was right in front of her. There was silence for a few seconds until he spoke again.

“Okay, you can open them.”

Rey cautiously opened one eye first, expecting to find him down on one knee, then the other when she realized he wasn’t. He was holding up the room’s white key card between two fingers and presenting it to her.

“What...?”

“This is it,” he said. “Your very own hotel room so you can have a decent night’s sleep. But wait, there’s more.”

He took her hand and led her to the spacious bathroom where she saw the full-sized tub. She recalled telling him how much she loved the idea of taking long baths to relax, even though she never found the time at home.

“This is for you,” he continued, fishing into his pocket and retrieving not a box with an engagement ring but a bath bomb. Rey gaped in response.

Poe wasn’t done yet. He gently pulled her back into the bedroom where there was a room service menu on the counter.

“And this… You can order a proper dinner, not shit from the cafeteria or the vending machines. Just charge it to the room. And for dessert…” He opened the mini fridge to reveal a container from home. “Kes’s chocolate mousse.”

It was her favorite. Rey blinked as she took it all in.

“You... got me a hotel room?” she stammered.

“You said you were going to stay in the on-call room rather than come home. You’re not going to sleep properly there. And you start your pediatric rotation tomorrow.”

Rey felt a wave of gratitude that he understood what she needed, then guilt when she couldn’t say she did the same for him all of the time. She was comfortable taking care of herself but allowing him to do it too, and learning how to reciprocate, didn’t come naturally.

Poe was digging into his bag again and pulled out her comfiest pajamas, the ones he liked to joke were mood killers, so she didn’t have to sleep in her scrubs.

“And last but not least,” he said and pulled out a twenty dollar bill from his back pocket. “So you can get a cab to the hospital in the morning.”

He smiled proudly as she took it, and she knew he was waiting for her reaction.

“Don’t you like it?” he asked eventually, his face falling when she just stared at him without a word.

Rey nodded mutely.

He tried not to look disappointed, an expression she knew well. “Okay. I guess you’re tired. I’m going to hit the road so I’m not home too late. Sleep well.” He pressed a chaste kiss to her lips.

“Poe,” she cried out, almost too late because he was at the door before she found her voice again.

She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. She held on tighter when his arms snaked around her waist and she heard his small sigh.  

“I love it,” she whispered. After a few moments she pulled away so she could look at him properly. She cleared her throat. “I love _you._ Thank you for doing this.”

She kissed him properly, not waiting for any reply, and kept kissing him for a good minute.

He finally broke away and planted a few more warm kisses on her cheeks and forehead.

“I love you too, doc.”

Rey felt a wave of despair when he stepped away to leave. She didn’t want him to go, and kept hold of his shirt.

“This is an amazing surprise,” she reiterated, still touched that he had been so thoughtful.

“For a minute there I thought you hated it,” Poe said with a low chuckle.

She smiled weakly. “For a minute there I thought you were going to propose.”

His eyes widened and then his expression brightened in comprehension, as if it all made sense to him now.

“No wonder. You thought I’d bring you here to ask you to marry me?” His tone was derisive. “If I knew nothing about you, maybe. I can do better than this.”

“So you have been thinking about it,” she teased.

“Of course I have,” he said earnestly. It made Rey’s heart skip a beat. “But now’s not the time.”

She shook her head. It really wasn’t. She had to complete her residency, and he was about to take his PA examinations. They did have to talk about what their future would look like first, and how it would all work.

“Just so you know, I would’ve said yes,” she blurted out.

Rey surprised herself with the truth of it, which didn’t feel anywhere near as scary as she thought it would. In that moment there was little uncertainty. It felt right. They felt right together. And she knew she would get there, and do everything in her power to make him, and Bea, happy… because that’s what they made her.

If her words shocked Poe he hid it well.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He smiled faintly as he ran a thumb over her cheek, then kissed her again softly. “Have a good night. I love you.”

After he was gone Rey turned around to look at the room, the bath bomb and money still in each hand, and smiled to herself. Not for the first time, she was grateful for everything she had.

And not for the last time, she looked forward to what came next.

 


End file.
